The Sepulchral Knight

Lord Soth
("The Hands of Doom" extract,
by Clyde Caldwell)

Lord Soth is a creature that is as Dragonlance-y as dragons can be.

Which makes the "Death Knight", the monster Lord Soth is supposed to be, as Dragonlance-y as dragons can be.

The problem is: I don't really like the Death Knight.

The Current State of the Art

D&D's Death Knight

First, the powers: Fireballs, walking through shadow, power word kill, magic resistance, ice wall. It seemed like an hodgepodge of miscellaneous powers.

Second, the Death Knight hints at a kind of undead knights that should be more diverse, in power, than the fixed heap of destruction. We should have undead squires, undead knights, undead uber-knight (sorry for the name).

The 5th edition of the Death Knight was much more focused on the Death theme. And yet, it's too much paladin-y to my taste, and lacks some of the cool powers of Lord Soth (the fear aura).

Pathfinder's Graveknight

The Graveknight (whose stats can be found here: https://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/templates/graveknight-cr-2/) is a reinterpretation of the Death Knight: It covers the same category of "undead knight", keep compatibility in some form, and adds a cool armor system.

First, the graveknight's armor is actually its "phylactery". As long as the armor survives, the Graveknight will come back.

Second, each Graveknight is attuned to one type of energy damage, like fire, ice, electricity. So it has immunity, and powers related to that energy. By default, this is something I dislike, because this is an undead knight, nor an elemental knight. But for my Dragonlance campaign, it is actually well adapted, as you will see below.

My Sepulchral Knight

Before starting, here's the translation in French:

• "Chevalier d'Outretombe", which translates back (roughly) into "Knight of Beyond the Grave" (shortened into Grave Knight).
• "Chevalier du Sépulcre", which translates back into "Knight of the Sepulchre", shortened into "Sepulchral Knight"
  

What I want?

First, I want three level of sepulchral knights, each level adding powers to the level below: Sepulchral Knight, Sepulchral Champion, and Sepulchral Lord.

Second, I'll keep the energy attunement from Pathfinder, adding to the list "necrotic", which is the default one. I don't like this elemental spin, but I understand why the Pathfinder designers thought it was a necessity (compatibility with the 3rd Edition Death Knight), and I foresee how it could become awesome in my Dragonlance campaign (see conclusion).

Third, I'll keep the armor phylactery from Pathfinder: The armor is the identity of the sepulchral knight, so it makes sense to make it the anchor of this undead. Also, it helps make them different from the liches, mummies, and other cadaver-like undead..

Fourth, I need the fear aura, irradiating from the Sepulchral Knight. Something that even kender can feel.

Fifth, I need them leading armored and armed skeletal undead warriors.

Description

The Sepulchral Knight is the result of a curse, usually self-inflicted, an undead monster created by the extreme corruption of a knight who reneged all they vows, all their oaths, to pursue a path of revenge, the anger, the passion being so strong even death cannot smother it out.

Usually, the Sepulchral Knight will come back infused with a massive amount of necrotic energies, but sometimes, in very rare cases, another type of energy infuses them, too: Fire, cold, electricity... and in very rare cases, blood. This energy will taint the Sepulchral Knight and their powers.

Then, using the instructions given by the Dungeon Master Guide, p274, I can give a stats block.

Stats Block

	Knight	Champion	Lord
	Medium Undead	Medium Undead	Medium Undead
CR	7 (2900 XPs)	10 (5900 XPs)	14 (11500 XPs)
Prof. Bonus	+2	+3	+4
AC	18 (plate)	20 (enhanced plate)	22 (enhanced plate)
Hit Points	60 (7 HD)	90 (10 HD)	140 (14 Hd)
Attack Bonus	+5	+9	+13
Damage / Round	27-32	39-44	57-62
Save DC	14	15	16
Ability/Modifier	Strength: 16 (+3) Dexterity: 11 (+0) Constitution: 16 (+3) Intelligence: 12 (+1) Wisdom: 12 (+1) Charisma: 14 (+2)	Strength: 18 (+4) Dexterity: 11 (+0) Constitution: 18 (+4) Intelligence: 12 (+1) Wisdom: 14 (+2) Charisma: 16 (+3)	Strength: 20 (+5) Dexterity: 11 (+0) Constitution: 20 (+5) Intelligence: 12 (+1) Wisdom: 16 (+3) Charisma: 18 (+4)
Saving Throws	Dex +2 Wis +3 Cha +4	Dex +3 Wis +5 Cha +6	Dex +4 Wis +7 Cha +8
Damage Immunities	Necrotic, Poison, Energy (if relevant)
Condition Immunities	Exhaustion, Frightened, Poisoned
Senses	Darkvision 36m
Language	Common, as relevant

Miscellaneous

• Magic Resistance
• (Knight): None.
  
• (Champion): The sepulchral knight has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
  
• (Lord): The sepulchral knight has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
• Regeneration: As long as they have at least 1 hit point, each day spent inactive, brooding over their existence, enables the sepulchral knight to regenerate 10% of its maximum hit points.
  
• Rejuvenation: Unless the sepulchral knight's armor is completely destroyed/sanctified, after an inactivity period, it will go back to 1 hit point, and thus, its regeneration (see above) will restart:
• (Knight): No rejuvenation (if reduced to zero hit points, a Knight is definitively destroyed)
  
• (Champion): 1d100 days of rejuvenation, before regeneration starts again
• (Lord): 1d10 days of rejuvenation, before regeneration starts again
• Turn Resistance: The sepulchral knight has advantage on saving throws against any effect that turns undead. In addition, any undead of their choice within a specific distance from the sepulchral knight can also profit from this resistance:
• (Knight): No other undead can profit from that resistance
  
• (Champion): Distance: 6m
• (Lord): Distance: 18m
• Aura of Fear: Anyone perceiving a sepulchral knight's presence feel hear. But anyone within a specific distance (see below) of a grave knight must succeed a Wisdom Saving Throw (see below), or become Frightened. If failed, the subject can attempt another saving throw every turn, until successful. If successful, the subject is not affected anymore by the sepulchral knight's aura until the next short rest:
• (Knight): Distance: 1.5m, Wisdom Saving Throw DC: 14
  
• (Champion): Distance: 3m, Wisdom Saving Throw DC: 15
• (Lord): Distance: 4.5m, Wisdom Saving Throw DC: 16

Actions

• Multiattack (longsword): 1 for Knight, 2 for Champion, 3 for Lord
• Longsword Attack
• (Knight): Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 1.5m, one target. Hit: 7 (1d8+3) slashing damage, or 8 (1d10+3) slashing damage if used with two hands, plus 5 (1d8) necrotic damage (or 1/2 necrotic + 1/2 elemental, if relevant).
• (Champion): Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 1.5m, one target. Hit: 8 (1d8+4) slashing damage, or 9 (1d10+4) slashing damage if used with two hands, plus 10 (2d8) necrotic damage, (or 1/2 necrotic + 1/2 elemental, if relevant).
• (Lord): Melee Weapon Attack: +13 to hit, reach 1.5m, one target. Hit: 9 (1d8+5) slashing damage, or 10 (1d10+5) slashing damage if used with two hands, plus 15 (3d8) necrotic damage, (or 1/2 necrotic + 1/2 elemental, if relevant).
• Cone of Death: As an action, the sepulchral knight can emit a line/cone of death (see below), dealing damage (see below), which is either 100% necrotic, or 50% necrotic/50% element (as per the grave knight will). Damage is halved if Dexterity Saving Throw (see below) is successful. This power can be used a limited times (see below) until next long rest
• (Knight): Cone length: 3m, cone angle: 0°, damage: 5d6, Dexterity Saving Throw DC: 14, once per day
  
• (Champion): Cone length: 6m, cone angle: 0° or 90°, damage: 10d6, Dexterity Saving Throw DC: 15, twice per day
• (Lord): Cone length: 12m, cone angle: 0°, 90° or 180°, damage: 15d6, Dexterity Saving Throw DC: 16, thrice per day
• Undead Mastery: As an action, The sepulchral knight can try to bring under their control any undead within a specific distance (see below), as long as the undead's CR is under a specific value (see below). The target must succeed a Wisdom Saving Throw (see below). Success means the undead is free, and cannot be affected anymore until 24 hours have passed. A failure means permanent control for an unintelligent undead, and control for 24 hours for an intelligent undead, after which the intelligent undead must try again to succeed the saving throw. The sepulchral knight can keep under their control only a limited number of undead (see below):
• (Knight): distance 3m, controlled undead maximum CR: 2, Wisdom Saving Throw DC 14, maximum hid dices under control: 35
  
• (Champion): distance 6m, controlled undead maximum CR: 3, Wisdom Saving Throw DC 15, maximum hid dices under control: 50
• (Lord): distance 12m, controlled undead maximum CR: 4, Wisdom Saving Throw DC 16, maximum hid dices under control: 70
• Raise Skeletons: Once per day, as long as suitable bodies are available, the sepulchral knight can raise undead of any skeleton type. They are automatically under his control (see Undead Mastery).
• (Knight): 2d10 hit dices of undead can be raised
• (Champion): 4d10 hit dices of undead can be raised
• (Lord): 6d10 hit dices of undead can be raised
  

...

Conclusion

This above enables me to create the "undead knight" of my dreams.

I have three candidates in mind:

• A random "skeleton warrior" kind of sepulchral knight (Knight), with no dedicated element. It's the typical "undead knight"
  
• Lord Soth, which would be a sepulchral knight (Lord), whose element is fire, for he died in the fire of his own castle
• Kitiara Uth Matar, which would be a sepulchral knight (Champion), whose element is electricity, for she has been the dragon highlord of the blue wing, she favored blue dragons, and she died because of a lightning bolt attack cast to her by a wizard
  

All three will be used in my campaign.

I can't wait to see the horrified faces of my players when realizing that the blue lady they (probably) will abandon to Soth (as Tanis did in the books) is back, riding a skeletal Skye...

😁